Jonathan Fisher QC identifies lessons for both prosecutors and defenders from the Eastenders Cash & Carry case concerning search warrants and restraint orders where alcohol diversion fraud was suspected
HMRC will wish to forget their recent experiences in the criminal investigation involving Eastenders Cash & Carry Ltd. HMRC were routed and by the time the litigation finished a raft of search warrants restraint orders and receivership orders had been quashed.
The episode must have cost HMRC hundreds of thousands of pounds in wasted legal costs.
Background
Towards the end of 2010 following a criminal investigation which started earlier in the year HMRC suspected that Eastenders Cash & Carry and those running the company...
